I feel like such a Hermione Granger; I’ve managed to find nearly all the books on the reading list (at least for the 1st year modules), and have no reason to think I won’t have skim read all of them by the start of term. It does help that I work at a university with a theology department, and hence had many of the books in the library!

Current book is Basic Types of Pastoral Care and Counselling, by Howard Clinebell, which so far has been very interesting. I think the pastoral side is one of the weaker aspects of my ministry, and hence something that will need more work on during training. There was a very interesting line in the book that leapt out at me:

The choice is not between counseling and not counseling, but between counseling in a disciplined and skilled way and counseling in an undisciplined and unskilled way.

(actually it would seem this is a quote from Wayne Oates, An Introduction to Pastoral Counselling, 1959)